A new term has entered Korea’s lifestyle-trend vocabulary in 2026: “1.5인가구” (1.5 households) — describing people who maintain the independence of living alone while deliberately preserving strong, structured connection to a partner, family member, or close friend, rather than the fully self-contained solo living the “1인가구” (one-person household) label implies.
The concept reflects a specific tension trend researchers have identified among young Korean solo-living residents: the practical and psychological benefits of having full control over one’s own living space, weighed against the loneliness and lack of built-in support that pure solo living can produce over time — with “1.5 households” describing an attempt to capture both benefits simultaneously rather than choosing one extreme.
In practice, the trend manifests in living arrangements like couples who maintain separate residences within close proximity rather than moving in together, adult siblings who live independently but coordinate meals and shared errands regularly, or close friend groups who maintain individual apartments while building recurring shared routines — arrangements that resist easy categorization in Korea’s traditional household statistics built around either single-person or family-unit classifications.
The trend has been picked up by Korean interior design and lifestyle retailers, who have begun marketing products and spatial layouts explicitly aimed at “1.5 household” living — solo-friendly apartment layouts with strong connectivity infrastructure, shared-but-separable spaces, and furniture designed for residents who split time between fully independent and closely connected living modes.
Sociologists tracking the trend note it may reflect a broader generational recalibration of what commitment and connection look like among young Koreans who have grown skeptical of both traditional marriage-centered cohabitation and fully isolated solo living, seeking a middle path that Korea’s existing housing and social infrastructure is only beginning to accommodate.
Source: Korean lifestyle trend media coverage of the “1.5인가구” (1.5 households) trend, 2026.
